Re: [CR]Hi-E timeline? Info sought.

(Example: Framebuilding:Paint)

Date: Thu, 02 Feb 2006 22:39:22 -0500
From: <joebz@optonline.net>
Subject: Re: [CR]Hi-E timeline? Info sought.
In-reply-to: <43E2C7BA.5070302@new.rr.com>
To: john@os2.dhs.org
References: <001601c62808$c7215e20$26fdd045@ts>
cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org

I don't think it is bad mouthing Hi-E to say they were often on the bleeding edge. The lighter timetrial front hub was fragile and could't take skewer compression. So that led to the wimpy skewers. Slipping of those on the rear led to the dropout cutting device. The rims, especially the lighter ones, were also fragile, bulging at each spoke. Cosmopolitan frames- I suspect they all broke if ridden much. Aluminium spokes! Hi-E was never junk, it was like the Lotus of bike parts. Ultralight race gear with some issues.

I have a custom set of Hi-E track hubs in 92mm front and 108mm rear width for my older track bikes. Even Harlan wondered what the hell I was up to, but then he made them.

Joe Bender-Zanoni
Great Notch, NJ


----- Original Message -----
From: John Thompson
Date: Thu, 02 Feb 2006 10:02:00 -0000
Subject: Re: [CR]Hi-E timeline? Info sought.


> Tom Sanders wrote:

\r?\n> > Too much to ask for, I guess. However I acquired a NOS pair of

\r?\n> Hi-E skewers

\r?\n> > last night and just crawled back out of the archives after

\r?\n> seeking to find

\r?\n> > out more about them and the company that made them.

\r?\n>

\r?\n> Harlan Meyers started Hi-E back in the early 70s IIRC. Put those

\r?\n> skewerson a shelf and admire them -- they're lighter than anything

\r?\n> out there,

\r?\n> but unless you butcher your dropouts as described in the Hi-E sheet

\r?\n> thataccompanied them, they won't hold your wheels reliably. Even if

\r?\n> you do

\r?\n> butcher them in the approved manner, they still have a propensity

\r?\n> to not

\r?\n> work.

\r?\n>

\r?\n> Not bad-mouthing Hi-E -- their hubs, rims, wheels,e tc. are all very

\r?\n> fine, but the skewers leave a lot to be desired.

\r?\n>

\r?\n> CR has a page for Hi-E here:

\r?\n>

\r?\n> http://www.classicrendezvous.com/USA/Hi_E.htm

\r?\n>

\r?\n>

\r?\n> --

\r?\n> John (john@os2.dhs.org)

\r?\n> Appleton WI USA